Garden of Stars

Travel Guide

Rose Alexander’s tour around the book’s locations

I chose Portugal as it’s a country I spent a lot of time in when I was in my twenties, at that time mainly in Lisbon, on the Algarve and in the Alentejo region. Therefore Portugal for me encapsulates my youth and all the possibilities that offered, plus it has a fabulous language and culture that endlessly fascinates.

For the main protagonist in my book, Sarah Lacey, Portugal also evokes many sensations of the past, of being young and, most importantly, of lost love. As I researched the book, I became more and more fascinated by the cork oak tree, which is a remarkable species and unique in nature. The life-cycle of these amazing trees serves as a metaphor for the love, loss and renewal that both Sarah and her great-aunt Inês experience.

For a visitor seeking to live out Sarah and Inês’s stories, they would want to visit the two biggest cities in Portugal, Porto and Lisbon. Both are enchantingly beautiful, although very different. The Baixa Alta in Lisbon won my heart as a young woman, when my friends and I would dance the night away in the African clubs that existed in hidden corners of the quarter which, pre-gentrification, was pretty dilapidated and, in our eyes, all the more charming for it. The Alfama district, too, is not to be missed. In Porto, the Cais da Ribeira along the river Douro is the main attraction and you can feel the weight of history in every stone of every building and pavement.

I will always have fond memories of Melides in the Alentejo where we wild camped in the dunes and fought daily battles with the fierce waves of the Atlantic that roll relentlessly in and out. Amarante and Obidos are very touristy but still lovely, and the grape growing regions of the high Douro are truly a place apart. There is so much to see but Portugal is a small country so you can do a lot in a short space of time – although be warned that the roads are often much slower and more bendy than they appear on the maps!